13 Facts About Brad Leftwich

Brad Leftwich was born on June 30,1953 and is an American old-time fiddler, banjo player, singer and teacher of traditional old-time style.

Brad Leftwich is originally from Oklahoma but has resided in Bloomington, Indiana for most of his life.

Since the 1970s, Leftwich has performed and taught at folk festivals, concerts, and music camps, written books on both fiddle and banjo, released instructional old-time fiddle videos and written articles on traditional fiddling.

Brad Leftwich maintains a youtube channel with some of his original field recordings.

Brad Leftwich's mother played piano and sang in church, and he first learned to play some old-time guitar from his father when he was 8 or 9 years old.

Brad Leftwich asked for his first banjo when he was 15, and fiddle when he was 17.

Brad Leftwich had made contact with some of the local old-time musicians still playing in Oklahoma.

Brad Leftwich continued to seek out and learn from other traditional musicians still living in the Ozarks, the Mid-west, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina and particularly cites Melvin Wine, John Dee Kennedy, T Fuller and Violet Hensley as sources of inspiration.

Brad Leftwich has made several recordings with his wife Linda Higginbotham.

Brad Leftwich's recordings have been used as a reference for Slippery Hill, an educational website maintaining a massive archive of source recordings for traditional American fiddle tunes.

Shortly after graduating from Oberlin College in 1975, Brad Leftwich moved to the musically active community of Lexington, Virginia where he co-founded the Plank Road String Band.

Brad Leftwich has taught at numerous music camps nationwide and in Europe.

Brad Leftwich has written articles on fiddling for Fiddler Magazine and for the Old-Time Herald, which he helped found.